The Hound of the Baskervilles

Holmes had been dead for eight years.

Not retired. Not travelling. Dead. Killed by Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in 1893, in a story Doyle had written specifically to get rid of him. He’d told his mother it was the only way. Holmes was taking up too much space in his head, crowding out the historical novels he actually wanted to write.

Twenty thousand people cancelled their subscriptions to The Strand Magazine in protest.

So when The Hound of the Baskervilles began serialising in 1901, it wasn’t just a new mystery. It was an event. Holmes was back.

Doyle had found a clever escape hatch: set the story before Reichenbach. Holmes wasn’t resurrected. He’d never died.

This was just... a case Watson had forgotten to mention.